Samuel Johnson

A poet, essayist, editor, and lexicographer.

1. Actions are visible; motives are not.

   1.

2. Books, like friends, should be few and well-chosen.

   2.

3. I hate mankind.
   For I think myself one of the best of them; and I know how bad I am.

   3.

4. I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

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5. Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

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6. Nature has given women so much power that the law has, very wisely, given them little.

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7. Read over your compositions, and, wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

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8. The chains of habit are too weak to be felt, until they are too strong to be broken.

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9. The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

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10. To keep your secret is wise.
    To expect others to do so is foolish.

    10.

11. What is written without effort is generally read without pleasure.

    11.